Super Sentences Centre

A few months ago I had the need to expand my reading centres to be more literacy centres. So I needed reading, write and word work activities. I wanted the writing activities to be skill development as well as skill application centres. When doing some internet searches I came across "super sentences" activities. In general, most of the super sentence lessons I came across provided students with a simple sentence. Then they needed to make it more interesting by adding adjectives and adverbs. 

I took this idea an tried it while my educational assistance was away. As I did not have an EA, I made the activity a Google Document so that students could use Read and Write for Google for support (this is an extension that will read the text on a Google Document, among other things).

This centre worked really well, and I have kept it in high rotation for reading centres. 

Skills Students Need

Students do need some skills before this centre should be used. Students should:

1. Know how to navigate their Google Drive and find documents in Shared With Me.
2. Know how to highlight text.
3. Know how to use Read and Write for Google.*
4. Know how to resolve a comment.
5. How to use the Spell Check function.

* This is why this activity works so well with technology rather than pencil and paper. By using Read and Write for Google (RW4G), students who struggle with reading and writing are supported. As this is a revision and editing task, even students who are strong readers are supported with RW4G as typically they read what they meant to write and not always what is actually there. When it is read aloud for them, they hear the errors. 

Skills Teachers Need

1. An understanding of how Read and Write for Google works.
2. A way to share Documents with students (using the Share function, Doctopus or Classroom, whatever works for you).
3. How to leave a comment and how to find resolved comments.
4. How to use and model highlighting and the spell check functions in Document.

How I Taught These Centres

Typically I follow the format below: 

1. On Monday introduce the centre and demonstrate it on the Smartboard. 
2. Have chart paper "reminders" for the centre for the rest of the week.
3. At the end of centres each day, read one or all of the super sentences created.
• I did not do this for the voice activity as these were longer pieces of writing and each student got a star and a wish. As such, I usually picked one student to share their work at the end of centre time.
• I did not do this for the editing activity as it would have given away all the edits.

One of the reasons I would read student work at the end is to keep students accountable. It also was a quick way to check for understanding. It also is a good review of the expectations throughout the week for students who might have the centre on Thursday or Friday.

Super Sentence Centre Ideas

Here are a few of the Super Sentence Centres I have tried. Initially I had students work on the skill of revising.

To make this multi-level you could take away the highlighted nouns for a challenge. I did not require one of my groups to write an ending sentence.

This is an example of what I modelled for the students. I usually do the first two sentences. We talk about how there might be more than one choice that makes sense and review how to highlight. The words were current or recent spelling words. 

We had a spring concert. So I chose that theme to have students edit for both adjectives and adverbs. 

For the fourth centre, I had students focus on revising for voice. I made two versions to differentiate the activity. As they had practised the super sentences centre three times, I did a formative assessment piece with the fourth centre. At the end of the week I gave each student two stars and a wish. The next week, they had the same activity for a centre. But this time they had to "grant" my wish. 

For students with more skill and confidence in writing.

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For students who have less skill or confidence with writing.

I decided students needed practice with editing as well. So for my next centre I had them become editors. Again this became a two week centre. After the first week they were given two stars and a wish. The activity for the second week was to find the corrections they missed in week one.

To support students, I used the highlighting function to help them locate the edits they missed. For both weeks I included an early finisher link(s) in the Documents themselves. For previous activities I often had an early finisher activity on my website. 

Sharing Ideas

Most of these activities can be found on the website Division One Collaboration Site For Educational Technology. Just open and make a copy. If you have an super sentence idea, please share it in the comments!

Technology As My E.A.

Help!

I recently had an educational assistant (E.A.) join my grade two class about 60% of the week. After about a month of having her in class she was away for two weeks. Despite her only being with my class for a short time, I already relied on her for the smooth running of my literacy centres. Each day students go to two centres. I have a large number of students who are working significantly below grade level and with behavioural issues. I truly needed her help and now she was going to be away for two weeks!

Technology To The Rescue

During reading centres I like to work with one group exclusively on guided reading or guided writing. I only leave my group briefly in the middle of each centre to monitor students' progress on the other centres (I sit where I can visually scan all groups regularly but I also like to do a walk-around once). Therefore, all the other groups need to be independent so that they are not interrupting my group. I do not want the independent work to be "filler", however. I want students to be engaged in meaningful work.

So, I decided to try increase the technology I use for centres to help me during my E.A.'s absence. My reasoning? Not only is it engaging but it could possible help provide immediate feedback on their work. Plus, if done correctly, I felt it would require little instruction from me. 

I already was using technology twice in my centres. Since September, students used tablets to access their RAZ Kids accounts. As well, students regularly accessed the computers to do word work activities (either from Spelling City or from interactive games/activities that related to the word work topics of the week).

OR Should I Say Google To The Rescue?

After searching ideas online and scanning many Pinterest boards, I did not find any pre-existing and free technology options that I felt met my needs. So I decided to make my own using Google Apps for Education products. 

Forms

The first tool I turned to was Google Forms. I used multiple pages along with the "Go to page based on answer" for multiple choice function to create a form that told students if their answers were correct or not as they worked on the form. They were directed to a video that reviewed "verbs" are if they selected the wrong answer. I taught students how they could select the "back" option once at the video to try again. 

I could see using this as a centre again, depending on the topic. It did not take much time to set up and my students were already familiar with forms, so it do not require a lot of instruction from me.

YouTube

I used YouTube for a making words station in a similar fashion as I used forms: I used it to provide students feedback on their work. I found a Notebook file I had created previously for a whole class lesson (I've been doing making words on the Smartboard for a long time, so I have many of these). Using Screencastify and a headset with a mic, I recorded a instructional video that I then uploaded to my YouTube channel. I put the letters needed for the making words lesson into ziplock bags and created a worksheet to record their work.

At centre time students took a bag of letters and a record sheet to a computer. As the video instructed, they'd make a word based on what they heard orally. Then the video would show them the correct way to make the word. I monitored whether or not students were just listening to the video and writing down the answers or if they were actually making the words along with the video. Only one or two students needed re-directing at the beginning of the centre.

I asked the students after how they liked the video/making words centre. Most gave it a thumbs up. A few mentioned that they found it too easy. So the following week I created two videos. I labeled each bag with a sticker to denote which level the letters belonged to.

I found this centre so successful that I have decide to keep it even with the return of my aide! I had always avoided having a making words (without technology) centre because students would not get feedback if they were making the words correctly until I looked at the record sheet a day or two later. Now that is no longer a concern as the video provides instant feedback. As it does take some time to make the videos, I will likely not use this centre every week.

Read And Write For Google

We had been working on adjectives and adverbs in language arts and learning how to revise sentences with them. So I decided to have students work at a "Super Sentences Centre". Each student was given their own copy of Super Spring Sentences (I used Doctopus to share). Students had to revise the writing by adding adjectives. Students who needed support got it with Read and Write For Google (RW4G). For those of you who are not aware of RW4G it is an extension that will (among other things) read a Google Document to the user. This meant all my students could work at this centre independently. In addition to having RW4G support them in reading the Document, they also had spell check to help them with the words they were adding. My students were familiar with how to use Google Docs and RW4G prior to this centre.

At the end of each round of centres each day, I read that day's Super Sentences creations on the Smartboard. This helps hold students accountable as well as show students how adjectives and adverbs can totally change a piece of writing. 

Like the making words videos, I liked this centre so much that I've decided to keep it in the regular centre rotation. The following week I modified it slightly for adverbs. As I create more "Super Sentences" centres I will share them on the Division One Collaboration Site For Educational Technology.

Not A Replacement

While having these technology centres helped bridge the gap while my aide was away, they are not a true replacement for an effective teacher or educational assistant. Unfortunately, there are many years when teachers have large class sizes with diverse needs and no funds to provide a human educational assistant when one is needed. Hopefully some of these ideas may help support teachers in that situation.

A Note About Access To Technology

To provide some context, I will share what technology I have access to. I have four desktop computers in class. As I have 25 grade two students in my class, most of my groups for centres are four to six students. So I use the computers as a centre but often need to use a netbook or two as well for large groups. Our school has 18 tablets. I currently keep six of them in class permanently as they are not used by others, at the moment. I also have easy access to a cart of 24 netbooks (yes, netbooks).  While these are not for my class exclusively, no one else uses them so I keep them in the room across from my classroom for easy access. Therefore I can have more than one group working at a computer-based centre.